. >> i think ronald reagan changed the trajectory of america, in a way that, you know, richard nixon did not. and in a way that bill clinton did not. he put us on a fundamentally different path, because the country was ready for it. >> that wasn't the way president obama talked during his first term, but that was the guy who launched his second term yesterday. in an 18-minute address, the president laid out a defense of liberalism, a forceful argument for progressive values. just as president reagan made the conservative movement mainstream in the '80s, this president wants to mainstream liberalism, to leave a center-left country as his political legacy. >> we have always understood that when times change, so must we. that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges. that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action. >> the president took on conservative opponents, making this unmistakable reference to wisconsin congressman and republican vice presidential nominee, paul ryan, who called recipients of federal benefits takers